String Quartet
by Syal
Summary: Four instruments. Four boys. Each with his own unique sound.


Disclaimer: Not mine.

~String Quartet~

**1. First Violin**

The perfection of James Potter is something that every school-age wizard wishes he could achieve. He is intelligent and popular and good-looking and is the best Chaser Hogwarts has seen in over four decades. He wears glasses, but people have said that they only amplify the perfect shape of his eyes, and the acute blueness of each iris.

In the last Quidditch match of the season he steals a victory for Gryffindor right from under Ravenclaw's nose, leaving their Seeker to stare dumbly at the flickering golden wings, not quite good enough, between his fingers. He also steals a half-second glance from Lily Evans, sitting in the stands with her girlfriends. She looks away as he flies by, but smiles at the ground when Amanda Pettengill elbows her in the ribs.

James has three best friends that he knows he would do anything for. He manages to justify that people like Snape are just jealous of everything James has going for him, so he doesn't feel particularly guilty when they fight.

Once when he and Snape are arguing, their wands fall to the ground and James starts pulling hair instead. He notices that Snape's hair is deceptively silky and wishes, for a brief moment, that he had hair like that before Professor McGonagall comes down the hall and pulls them off of each other.

**2. Second Violin**

On the night of the incident, Sirius didn't get to bed until well after midnight. Dumbledore kept him and James and Snape in his office for an hour and fifteen minutes. Sirius knew because he kept sneaking glances at his watch while the Headmaster frowned from behind steepled fingers.

"I don't believe I have anything left to say for the night," Dumbledore finally concluded at a quarter past twelve. "Straight to bed now. All of you."

Sirius looked at James and then at the floor, and nodded. Snape was already gone.

"James…" Sirius began as they headed upstairs to their room, but James only shook his head and stared straight in front of him.

When they opened the door, Peter was curled up in a chair in the corner with the tip of his wand lit and poised over a book. "You're back! Tell me-"

But Sirius interrupted him with a narrow-eyed stare and fell into bed with his clothes still on. "I don't want to talk about it."

He decided that first thing tomorrow, even before breakfast, he would talk to James and make sure that he wasn't angry. Then maybe after they ate they could visit Remus in the hospital wing. They always visited Remus in the hospital wing on the day after.

**3. Viola**

During the Christmas holiday of 1974, Anthony and Linda Pettigrew decided to take a second honeymoon to the Bahamas.

"You have fun at school with your friends, Petey," his mother's loopy handwriting instructed him one morning as a sheet of notebook paper floated into his orange juice.

"We'll bring you back a shark's tooth!" his dad had added sloppily at the bottom of the letter that permitted him to remain at Hogwarts for Christmas. Peter reread all four lines of the note as he munched on a piece of toast, then folded it up and put it in his pocket. He decided not to write back telling his parents that his friends were all going home for the holidays.

Regardless, Remus sent him a beautiful mahogany case for his wand, Sirius gave him (a day belated) the remaining comics needed to complete his set of _Basil Botsworth, Wizard Detective, _and James sent three owls to carry a four-foot-long replica of his favorite Seeker in professional Quidditch.

One day, when the mark on Peter's arm feels like it's on fire, he'll think about that winter and how his friends abandoned him. He won't really be able to tell if it makes the burning prickle hurt any less.

**4. Cello**

There are times when James really bothers you. "Get your nose out of the books, Remus!" he says and snatches your Transfiguration text from you lap. "Come with us," he pleads, tugging your arm and motioning indiscreetly to a wadded-up invisibility cloak in the corner. There are times when you resent James for his lack of regard for rules and order, and how he never fails to get away with it.

Every so often you want to ignore Sirius. He demands attention every minute of the day and you imagine that if he were being neglected, he'd drop a vase from five feet above the ground just so you'd turn your head at the shatter. He is needy and immature and makes comments about girls' chests, even when you're all but positive that he likes boys.

Peter almost never causes any trouble but sometimes you wish he would. He is quiet and shy and self-conscious about everything but you think that he could work on that if all of you tried to help him. Sometimes you wish you could separate him from James and Sirius just for a day, just to see if he could make it, because, sometimes, you're not sure if he could.

"How're ya feeling?" Sirius asks with a lopsided grin every time you wake up to the blinding white of the hospital wing.

"Great." Your bones ache and your skin is covered in scratches and dark purple bruises that take forever to fade. "Great," you say, and it's the truth because you're with your best friends, and you're not sure what you would do if they were gone.


End file.
